


Gone.

by Ava_The_Stargazer



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Denial, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Missing Persons, Recovery, Somewhat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 08:19:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14849111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ava_The_Stargazer/pseuds/Ava_The_Stargazer
Summary: It’s been six months. Caleb’s still gone.He’s left a hole that can’t ever truly be filled. Every time Shane thinks of him, it’s like running his tongue over the space where a tooth used to be.Something should be there, but isn’t.





	Gone.

At first, when Caleb’s mom calls him, it seems like a joke.

Shane’s known Caleb since they were in diapers. He _knows_ that he wouldn’t just take off like that. But they can’t find Caleb, or his Chevy Silverado, and they’re wondering if Shane has seen him at all this weekend.

He hasn’t.

He tells her as much, his voice cracking ever so slightly as he does.

This isn’t like him. Caleb wouldn’t do this. He would have told Shane. They’ve been best friends since kindergarten, they did everything together.

Running away wouldn’t be an exception.

 

\----

 

Caleb’s parents fill out a missing persons report the next day. When Shane catches a glimpse of Caleb’s little sister Alexis at school, her face is pale and drawn.

It’s suddenly become too real.

He calls Caleb’s phone seventeen times in the span of two hours. His voicemails started off concerned, scared, nervous.

“Caleb, dude, please pick up. This - this isn’t funny. I swear, when you come back, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

“Seriously. Your family’s scared.”

“...I’m scared.”

By call seventeen, Shane doesn’t even know what to say. He’s got so many emotions swirling around in his mind that he can barely think.

He cusses Caleb out right then and there, pacing the floor of his bedroom so much that he’s surprised that he hasn’t worn a path. When he’s at call twenty, he flops down on his bed. He can feel tears start to leak out from the corners of his eyes. He wipes them away angrily.

This can’t be happening.

Caleb wouldn’t do this.

Not to him.

 

\----

 

Three days after he disappears, someone finds Caleb’s Silverado broken down alongside a road out of town. There’s no sign of struggle, yet something sinks down low and heavy in Shane’s stomach when Alexis tells him.

He can’t stand to see her like this. She’s too sweet and kind for this to happen to her. She tucks a dark strand of hair behind her ear and takes a shaky breath.

“We’re organizing a search party tomorrow at three by Truman Lane. Just thought you’d want to know.”

He doesn’t want this to be real. He swallows the lump in his throat and nods. “Thanks. I’ll be there.”

 

\----

 

It’s been two weeks.

They haven’t found Caleb yet.

Shane’s spent hours trudging through the woods around Caleb’s truck. He silently hopes that he’s not the one that finds anything.

 

\----

 

He puts up missing persons posters around town. People pass him by on the street, shooting him pitying glances.

He knows that it’s not going to help. The people in this town all know Caleb’s gone. It’s been three weeks. How could they not?

Caleb stares down at him from the posters. He’s smiling widely, completely unaware that his best friend is dying inside not knowing what’s happened to him.

Shane shoves his hands in his pockets and walks off to the next telephone pole.

 

\----

 

It’s been two months.

Shane still puts up the posters. He’s not sure why. Some part of him knows that wherever Caleb is, he’s never coming back.

 

\----

 

Graduation comes and goes.

Caleb still hasn’t been found. Shane gets his honors diploma and applies to Indiana Bloomington University.

He attends graduation parties and actually, to his infinite surprise, enjoys himself. He meets a girl named Ava and they start talking. Talking leads to a date. And then another. And another. Before he knows it he’s calling her his girlfriend and staying up past midnight texting with her about anything and everything.

He’s jamming out to a song in the car one day when he realizes that it’s by Caleb’s favorite band. It hurts, but not as much as when he realizes that he’s getting used to not having Caleb there.

 

\----

 

It’s been six months. Caleb’s still gone.

He’s left a hole that can’t ever truly be filled. Every time Shane thinks of him, it’s like running his tongue over the space where a tooth used to be.

Something should be there, but isn’t.

 

\----

 

He gets a scholarship to Bloomington. When Shane tells his parents, his dad claps him on the back and his mother wipes away tears. He calls Ava and he can hear her gasp with delight through the phone.

She promises that she’ll take him out on a date to celebrate, and he holds her to that. They go out to a fancy little bistro forty minutes away and talk about anything from movies to their future and he thinks that maybe, just maybe, Ava is the girl he’s been waiting for. When he drives her home, she kisses him goodnight and smiles so sweetly at him he can practically feel his heart melt with affection.

It’s the best time he’s had in months.

 

\----

 

It’s been a week since Shane’s date with Ava. He’s cleaning his room, keeping busy by stacking records and wondering how so much dust can build up in a room in just a month. His phone rings, loudly blasting the Spiderman theme from across the room. It takes him just three long strides to get to his desk and he picks the phone up, staring out his bedroom window onto the street below.

“Hello?”

“Shane.” It’s Alexis. Her voice is thick and shaky, and his stomach twists. “It’s Caleb. They- they found him. Some kids were messing around in the junkyard and fou-”

The phone slips from his fingers and shatters on the floor.

Shane doesn’t care.

 

\----

 

Shane doesn’t leave his room for almost a week.

Caleb’s dead.

He shouldn’t be. He should be alive and telling Shane about how excited he is to go to Emerson and then go into filmmaking and how they’ll move to the coast after graduating and everything will be just like how they planned it. But he isn’t alive. He’s dead, and gone, and Shane will _never_ see him again.

Ava comes over and lies down on his bed next to him. She traces patterns on his arm, not saying anything. He’s glad she’s there. He doesn’t know what he’d do if she wasn’t.

 

\----

 

It’s been two years since Caleb died.

Shane’s twenty and back home from Bloomington for Thanksgiving break. He’s glad to get a chance to eat real food, and to get away from the pretentious kids in his genpsych class. But before everything else, he makes a visit.

He sits down in front of Caleb’s brand new gravestone, sighing. “Hey, man. Your headstone looks good.”

No reply. Of course.

He sets the bouquet of flowers he’d bought in front of him. “Got you these. I know you’re not much of a flowers guy, but thought you’d appreciate them.”

He draws in a breath, playing with the grass beneath him. “I’m… I’m doing good. College is… well, college. I’m thinking about joining a fraternity. Not one of those jock ones though.” He makes a face. “No way. Not my scene. You get what I mean, though.” A sparrow perches on a headstone a few feet away, and Shane stares at it for a moment, lost in thought.

He shakes his head and decides to focus on the bouquet instead. “Classes are going good. I’m really liking my forensics class, half because Professor Alvarez is _awesome_ and half ‘cause the stuff we do is actually pretty fun, despite the horror stories from upperclassmen.”

“Me and Ava are still together. I think we’re gonna move in together after college.” He looks behind him, and sees Ava resting her head against the window of their car, asleep. “I still think you two would have gotten along great. She’s got the same sense of humor as you, I swear.”

Shane smiles sadly, fishing a quarter out of his pocket. He places the coin on the base of the gravestone, next to the flowers.

“I really miss you, Caleb.”

Shane’s certain that he’ll never stop.


End file.
